Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The latest row over a high-fashion magazine cover, involving the US vice-president-elect, illustrates the chaos than can ensue when alpha worlds collide
When Theresa May appeared in US Vogue in 2017, even her deliberately anodyne choice of a posh-end-of-the-high-street dress by British label LK Bennett did not prevent this newspaper calling the Annie Leibovitz shoot a “defining moment” which, “like Margaret Thatcher in the tank turret looking like a cross between Boudicca and Lawrence of Arabia … might easily become a signifier of all that is flawed in her prime ministerial style”. Michelle Obama’s bare upper arms appeared no fewer than three times on the cover of Vogue during her White House years, causing pearl-clutching uproar at the sight of her toned triceps.
As divers search for black boxes in Java Sea, families recall last-minute messages
Rafik Yusuf Alaydrus’s wife, Panca Widia Nursanti, messaged him on WhatsApp as she sat on board the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 flight. The weather in Jakarta was bad, she said. It was raining heavily and the flight, bound for Pontianak on Borneo island, had been delayed for an hour by the poor conditions.
As she waited for takeoff on Saturday, Panca told him she had a bad feeling, and asked him to pray for her. “I tried to calm her down, saying that I would pray for her, and asked her to pray during flight. Inshallah she would be safe,” he said.
Public safety minister says group, founded by a Canadian, is ‘hateful and dangerous’, citing their role in the US Capitol attack
Canadian officials are considering designating the far-right Proud Boys as a terrorist organization alongside groups like Boko Haram, Isis and al-Qaida, following their role in the mob attack on the US Capitol last week.
Canada’s public safety minister said his office was closely watching the Proud Boys and the “ideologically-motivated violent extremists” within the group.
Adnan Oktar was detained in 2018 along with more than 200 other suspects in his group
A Turkish court has sentenced a Muslim televangelist who surrounded himself with scantily clad women he called “kittens” to more than 1,000 years in jail for sex crimes.
Adnan Oktar preached creationism and conservative values while women in revealing outfits – many of whom appeared to have had plastic surgery – danced around him to upbeat music in the TV studio.
Trump administration’s 11th-hour decision greeted with dismay by aid agencies working in Yemen
The Trump administration has made an 11th-hour decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation in a move that is likely to severely worsen the war-torn country’s humanitarian crisis.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced the decision late on Sunday, despite bipartisan opposition and months of warnings from UN officials and aid organisations that the designation – part of the White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and its allies – would lead to shortages and delays for aid and commercial shipments and undermine the peace process.
French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.
The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.
Proposals would allow only Dutch residents to enter city’s 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops
Foreigners face being banned from Amsterdam’s cannabis coffee shops as part of wide-ranging plans to discourage organised crime and cut back on drugs tourism that have drawn mixed reactions from residents and business owners.
Backed by police and prosecutors, the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has tabled proposals allowing only Dutch residents to enter its 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops, with the measure likely to come into force sometime next year.
Christos Pappas, Golden Dawn’s de facto number two, is missing, while MEP Ioannis Lagos has refused to return home
Kostis Papaioannou is by his own admission, a far right junkie. Documenting the twists and turns of Golden Dawn, the Greek neo-fascist party whose rise and fall took Europe by storm, gets him “fired up”.
Yet little prepared Papaioannou, who has written several books about the extremists, for his latest endeavour: charting the days when two of the now defunct political force’s convicted leaders would remain at large. “It’s incredible,” said the prominent human rights activist. “Rather than ticking off the days they spend behind bars I’m now calculating their time spent savouring freedom.”
I wanted to come here. No one forced me, and my wife also agreed in a snap.
To be honest, though, I didn’t tell my brother. He lives where I used to live – Kutupalong camp. He is very against this island for some reason. He might have tried to stop me coming if I dared to discuss the topic. So I didn’t. I only told him after I arrived. I was amazed that he didn’t yell at me.
In the UK, ministers appear to have downgraded their promise to vaccinate the most vulnerable by mid-February, committing only to offering them an inoculation by that point.
The prime minister Boris Johnson said last week that they would have received their first jab by that date – and that daily figures for vaccinations carried out would be published from this week.
The top four categories, actually, for the UK is 15 million people, in England it’s about 12 million people, so we will have offered a vaccination to all of those people.
When you offer a vaccination it doesn’t mean a Royal Mail letter, it means the vaccine and the needle and the jab are ready for you. What you will see us publishing is the total numbers of people being vaccinated, not being offered a vaccine, and that’s the number to hold us to account to.
Passenger numbers at London’s Heathrow airport were down 72.7% in 2020, with 22.1 million people travelling through it.
In December, demand fell by 82.9% to 1.1 million as the new variant of the virus spread in the UK. Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye said:
The past year has been incredibly challenging for aviation. While we support tightening border controls temporarily by introducing pre-departure testing for international arrivals, as well as quarantine, this is not sustainable.
The aviation industry is the cornerstone of the UK economy but is fighting for survival. We need a road map out of this lockdown and a full waiver of business rates.
If we use this pivotal moment to shift funding to grassroots groups we could unlock transformational change
While the US continues to reckon with its long-simmering struggle against racial injustice, it is important to remember that racism is not just a homegrown problem – we are also exporting it.
As we begin 2021, global philanthropy has an opportunity to address this.
The death toll of animals and humans is mounting as herders seeking dwindling reserves of pasture clash with farmers
In February last year, Sunday Ikenna’s fields were green and lush. Then, one evening, a herd of cattle led into the farm by roving pastoralists crushed, ate, and uprooted the crops.
“I lost everything. The situation was sorrowful, watching another human being destroy your farm,” says Ikenna, a father of 10 who farms in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu state, southern Nigeria. “I farmed a smaller portion this year because I am still scared of another invasion.”
A World Health Organization team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will arrive in China on 14 January, China’s national health authority has said.
The team was initially aiming to enter China in early January but China blocked their arrival, saying visas had not yet been approved, even as some members of the group were on their way.
The Years & Years frontman is starring in Russell T Davies’ new drama about the Aids crisis. He talks about bulimia, his ‘dark’ clubbing days – and how he learned to enjoy filming sex scenes
Olly Alexander was so certain he was destined for success that he saw a therapist to help him prepare for his future fame. It was 2014 and his band Years & Years had just signed to Polydor when he visited the shrink.
“I said: ‘The album’s coming out and I really want it to be successful,’ and he said: ‘What happens if it isn’t?’ I said: ‘Well, that’s not an option because I have planned it in my diary since I was a teenager.’”
Analysis: new president will face threats on multiple fronts, including from Russia and Iran, and must decide future of US arsenal
Joe Biden will have to make critical decisions on arms control in his first days in the White House that could determine whether a new nuclear arms race can be averted, and possibly reversed.
When the new president takes the oath of office on 20 January, there will be 16 days left before the 2010 New Start treaty with Russia expires, and with it the last binding limit on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals left standing in the wake of the Trump era.
Many of us express concern about the country’s soaring house prices - but we also vote for policies that let them stay that way
It was the anthropologist Michael Taussig who coined the term “public secret” – a collective social understanding, a truth generally accepted but not articulated.
Public secrets, he argued, can be important to the functioning of institutions and societies: they allow the existence of seemingly contradictory positions, help maintain current power relations, and assist in reconciling the inevitable tensions of policy or complexities of politics.
Government guidelines give tips on how to avoid putting on weight and how to prepare food for men who are ‘unaccustomed to cooking’
The Seoul city government has sparked anger for offering advice to pregnant women that includes ensuring their husbands have clean clothes and enough to eat while they are in hospital giving birth.
The guidelines, posted on a government-run website, included tips for expectant South Korean mothers at different stages of their pregnancy.
In France, every child is now obliged to have 11 vaccinations. If parents want their children to attend school, or take part in many extracurricular activities, they must accept. There is no opt-out or concessions made to vaccine doubters.
On Monday France’s government and health authorities are speeding up the country’s Covid-19 vaccine drive – a process complicated by widespread scepticism about the inoculation that has encompassed the usual global conspiracy theories.
Presidential challenger Bobi Wine has been protesting against corruption and youth unemployment
As Uganda readies for an election on Thursday, President Yoweri Museveni is doubling down on his main rival and preparing himself for a sixth term in office.
After 35 years in power, he faces a powerful opponent, the popular singer Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, 38, known by his stage name Bobi Wine, who has captured the hearts of a new generation by protesting against corruption and youth unemployment.
Authorities located data recorders on Sunday from jet that crashed off Jakarta carrying 62 people
Indonesian divers will try to retrieve the data recorders of a Sriwijaya Air jet on Monday after it plunged into the sea two days ago with 62 people on board minutes after take off from Jakarta’s main airport.
Flight SJ182 was headed to Pontianak on Borneo island, about 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta, on Saturday before it disappeared from radar screens four minutes after take-off and crashed into the Java sea.